My dad was a steam fanatic and also friends with Sloan and his uncle Hall Cornell. An ameture photographer and reporter for the Indiane Evening Gazette, he took most of the photos in the early PVMRR brochures and did the layouts too. I still have a few of the business cards with My dad as publicity manager. Hey, got him and later me a lot of rides on the PVMRR.

I have some surprisingly good audio tapes my dad made on his “high tech” Channel Master cassette recorder of old #8 and also #76. #8 was a very gutsy sounding engine with a melodious whistle(Steamtown should put #8s whistle on #26, geeze what a terrible whistle). She also has about the loudest rod clank I’ve ever heard. Duquesne Slag definitely got their money’s worth out of that engine. All the driver spokes on the fireman’s side were also cracked and had to be welded numerous times. If you visit her in Steamtown, take a close look.

Randy Hees

Post subject: Re: Penn View Mountain Railway

Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 5:03 pm

Site Admin

Joined: Sat Aug 28, 2004 1:15 pmPosts: 1275Location: Henderson Nevada

Quote:

Did you notice the ticket prices? $1.00 for adults, .50 for kids?Talk about moving the decimal point to the right over time....

Yes... moving the decimal point to the right produces exactly the fares charged by the Nevada State Railroad Museum, Boulder City today... for a 5 mile/40 minute ride behind diesels...

I suspect our fares could be higher, but we are a state museum and there is some belief that we need to keep the fares low...

...Back in the early days of the PVM Ry. Sloan also had ex-PRR diesel-electric railcar 4666 on the PVM property, but I believe it wasn't operational at the time. Today the 4666 is at the BR&W RR in Ringoes, NJ (where it once operated)....Regards,Jim Robinson

Didn't he have two of the beasts? 4666 (a personal favorite from its days as the Freehold School Bus and much later on the Black River) we're sure of. The picture on the brochure shows a second unit and I recall seeing a very similar picture in RAILROAD Magazine back in the 60s which I believe was captioned that the two units were enroute to the PVM at Blairsville. Perhaps steamloco76 can enlighten us? A perusal of old threads indicates two candidates for the second unit but no definitive answer.

The Penn View Mountain is on my list of "Wish I had gone there places" along with Rail City.

GME

Alan Maples

Post subject: Re: Penn View Mountain Railway

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 6:05 pm

Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 9:19 amPosts: 545Location: Scottsboro, AL

Yes, there were two. The 4666 and the 4668 (whitelined in the photo, at the PRR Blairsville station). Both were trucked to the PVM but neither is believed to have operated there and both were sold within a year or two. The 4666 is now at the Allentown & Auburn (by way of Arcade & Attica, New Hope & Ivyland, and Black River & Western). The 4668 is believed to be part of John Larkin's private collection in Michigan, by way of the Illinois Railway Museum.

Yes, there were two. The 4666 and the 4668 (whitelined in the photo, at the PRR Blairsville station). Both were trucked to the PVM but neither is believed to have operated there and both were sold within a year or two. The 4666 is now at the Allentown & Auburn (by way of Arcade & Attica, New Hope & Ivyland, and Black River & Western). The 4668 is believed to be part of John Larkin's private collection in Michigan, by way of the Illinois Railway Museum.

Alan Maples

Brother Maples, Thank you for the clarification. I didn't think it was dementia on my part but I was hoping that there might be a fourth intact car in barn or maybe a quarry.GME

steamloco76

Post subject: Re: Penn View Mountain Railway

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 1:00 pm

Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2009 6:16 pmPosts: 32

Alan Maples wrote:

Yes, there were two. The 4666 and the 4668 (whitelined in the photo, at the PRR Blairsville station). Both were trucked to the PVM but neither is believed to have operated there and both were sold within a year or two. The 4666 is now at the Allentown & Auburn (by way of Arcade & Attica, New Hope & Ivyland, and Black River & Western). The 4668 is believed to be part of John Larkin's private collection in Michigan, by way of the Illinois Railway Museum.

Alan Maples

The photo was taken by my dad, Bill Graff, Sr. with Hall Cornell seated in the Doodlebug window. I have a few other photos from that set which I believe date to winter of 1965. My dad said they never did get either 4666 or 4668 running.

The former PRR station, offices for the stillborn "Blairsville & Indiana" was remodeled in the early 1990's with new red brick replacing the horrid yellow brick (old postcards show the station originally had red brick) and used as a bank until last year. Vacant for about eight months the station now is home to a local Optometrist.

The photo was taken by my dad, Bill Graff, Sr. with Hall Cornell seated in the Doodlebug window. I have a few other photos from that set which I believe date to winter of 1965. .

Thank you Bill, the 8x10 turned up in a collection I have but the print lacked any identification.

Alan Maples

PRR4666

Post subject: Re: Penn View Mountain Railway

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 10:46 pm

Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:28 pmPosts: 7Location: Bucks County, PA

I'm the current owner of 4666.

The information that I was told many years ago by the prior owners H. T. Jenkins and R. Kennedy was that near the end of PRR Trenton-Camden service both 4666 and 4668 had problems - 4666 with the pony engine and 4668 with the main engine. That to cover the last 4-6 months of service PRR swapped the pony engines. In speaking to someone at the current location of 4668 many years ago, it is missing the pony engine.

As far as I was told, neither unit actual made it onto PVM rails - PRR moved them from Bear DE to the yard at Hollidaysburg and that is where they sat.

steamloco76

Post subject: Re: Penn View Mountain Railway

Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2017 10:21 am

Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2009 6:16 pmPosts: 32

PRR4666 wrote:

I'm the current owner of 4666.

The information that I was told many years ago by the prior owners H. T. Jenkins and R. Kennedy was that near the end of PRR Trenton-Camden service both 4666 and 4668 had problems - 4666 with the pony engine and 4668 with the main engine. That to cover the last 4-6 months of service PRR swapped the pony engines. In speaking to someone at the current location of 4668 many years ago, it is missing the pony engine.

As far as I was told, neither unit actual made it onto PVM rails - PRR moved them from Bear DE to the yard at Hollidaysburg and that is where they sat.

Both 4666 and 4668 definitely made it to Blairsville and later to the PVMRR storage track behind the Cornell Farmhouse just off Strangford Rd, Burrell TWP. An earlier post has a photo of Hall Cornell in the window of one of the doodlebugs sitting beside the Blairsville PRR station at Market St. From there, the pair was towed to a siding in Strangford where they were stored until being trucked the half mile to Cornell’s farm. I have negatives showing them at Strangford.

By the way, if you have any manuals or other PRR documents from 4666/4668, Sloan Cornell found them and gave the packet to my father who the sent them to Mr. Jenkins so he could use them. Never did hear from him as to whether he received them all those years ago.

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